Eastern Washington one of just two Division I squads nationally to be honored eight consecutive years

The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team once again earned itself a spot on the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Honor Roll, doing so for the eighth straight season. The Eagles and Indiana State are the only two teams nationally to even be honored for six straight years, and both teams made it eight in 2008-09.

Eastern, by virtue of a team grade point average of 3.422, attained the ninth spot as a result of the team's work in the classroom this past year. GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution's roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team.

Indiana State earned the top spot in Division I with a 3.645 team GPA, ending a three-year reign by South Dakota State in the first slot. The Sycamores were followed by North Dakota (3.58) and SDSU (3.571), respectively. The Big Sky Conference was represented well, as Montana State came in fourth (3.501) in addition to Eastern Washington’s ninth-place placement.

“It is always an honor for the WBCA to recognize these teams for putting together outstanding cumulative grade point averages,” WBCA CEO Beth Bass said. “We want to congratulate each and every one of these teams for their efforts in the classroom and want them to know that we celebrate their hard work. My thanks go out to these teams for setting a benchmark of success academically among their peers in the sport.”

Here is a complete list of the Division I Academic Top 25 Teams:

School, Head Coach, Team GPA
1, Indiana State, Jim Wiedie, 3.645
2, North Dakota, Gene Roebuck, 3.580
3, South Dakota State, Aaron Johnston, 3.571
4, Montana State, Tricia Binford, 3.501
5, Bowling Green, Curt Miller, 3.470
6, Northern Iowa, Tanya Warren, 3.437
7, Manhattan, Myndi Hill, 3.432
8, Western Carolina, Kellie Harper, 3.428
9, Eastern Washington, Wendy Schuller, 3.422
10, New Mexico, Don Flanagan, 3.414
11, DePaul, Doug Bruno, 3.402
12, Utah Valley, Cathy Nixon, 3.390
13, Kansas State, Deb Patterson, 3.374
14, Wichita State, Jody Adams, 3.361
15, Lehigh, Susan Troyan, 3.356
t16, Saint Bonaventure, Jim Crowley, 3.353
t16, Cornell, Dayna Smith, 3.353
18, Villanova, Harry Perretta, 3.346
19, Evansville, Misty Murphy, 3.336
20, Oakland, Beckie Francis, 3.323
t21, Charleston Southern, Julie Goodenough, 3.320
t21, Columbia, Paul Nixon, 3.320
23, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Matthew Bollant, 3.317
24, South Dakota, Ryun Williams, 3.311
25, Hartford, Jennifer Rizzotti, 3.308